Murphy's Law holds that whatever can go wrong will go wrong. The Angels' 2013 season has rarely broken this law. Come to think of it the Angels should have hit the ball to David Murphy more often Monday.

Murphy was playing right field for the Texas Rangers in place of Nelson Cruz who was suspended 50 games earlier in the day for using performance-enhancing drugs. Murphy badly misplayed a pair of fly balls one that resulted in an RBI for Mark Trumbo in the first inning and another that resulted in a single for Chris Nelson that kept a last-ditch rally alive in the eighth inning.

The rally fell short. Murphy's Law. The Angels lost 5-2 before an announced crowd of 34040 at Angel Stadium.

Worse than that they lost second baseman Howie Kendrick for the night -- and possibly much longer -- to a hyperextended left knee in the fifth inning. He is scheduled to get an MRI exam today to determine the severity of the injury.

"Like crap" was how Kendrick described his feeling after the game.

He and right fielder Collin Cowgill converged in pursuit of a fly ball to shallow right field hit by Texas' Elvis Andrus. Kendrick's leg collided with Cowgill's arm as the two players dove for the ball which bounced between them into right field. Kendrick had to be helped off the field able to put only a small amount of weight on his left leg and was using crutches after the game.